An EirGrid-led consortium has secured €20m in funding from the EU to carry out research into renewable energy development.

The EU-SysFlex project will receive the funding under Horizon 2020, the EU’s €80bn research and innovation programme.

EirGrid is the overall project co-ordinator, while French electricity group EDF will act as technical co-ordinator.

Fintan Slye, chief executive of EirGrid, described the funding as an endorsement of the company’s ground-breaking work in renewable energy,

“Our engineers have been working to meet the challenges of operating the electricity system while achieving high renewable electricity targets. Running the power system with the current high levels of renewable energy is unprecedented and presents significant challenges for its real-time operation,” Mr Slye said.

The project, which involves 34 organisations from 15 countries across Europe, has an overall budget of €26m and will run for four years until 2021.

The aim of the EU-SysFlex project is to identify issues associated with integrating large amounts of renewable energy, provide practical assistance to power system operators across Europe, and create a long-term roadmap to facilitate the large-scale integration of renewable energy.

In 2016, renewable energy accounted for almost a quarter of electricity generation across the island of Ireland and is expected to rise to 40pc by 2020 in order to meet Irish and Northern Irish government targets.

The EU has also set out ambitious plans for greener and a more decarbonised Europe by increasing the levels of renewable energy.